There are some really "cool" things happening in our district. Please read all the way to the end.
Our Vision:
The STREAM committee is dedicated to developing a program that is inquiry based and that will develop students into confident, self-directed learners. In a safe and supportive environment our students will be engaged in a group problem solving with applicable solutions that develops independent thinking while fostering collaboration. Students will have opportunities to gain read world experience through community partnerships and internships. Our goal is to combine science, technology, research, engineering, art, and mathematics to prepare our students to be Life Ready.
Want to get STREAM-y?
These are our top Winter picks to try in your classroom!
What’s STREAMing at...
Chase, Cooke, & KLR
Chase
Cooke
KLR
KLR
RJK Middle School
Students worked hard in Technology class building bridges by picking a particular design using their structural engineering knowledge. Then they tested their structural design by experimenting with how much weight it can hold.
Physical Science classes are testing for deposition condensation of water vapor
This Physical Science class is working on proving the law of conservation of matter
This Physical Science class is working on air resistance
Monticello High School
Principles of Health Science is rapping up a busy month long health and wellness unit. They started with learning some Yoga with Ms. Linda Morgan-Kenny.
SUPA Forensics students combine biology, chemistry, and physics when they learned about the characteristics of blood, blood typing and blood spatter. They had to break out their tape measure, protractor and trigonometry functions to calculate the angle of impact and the height of the blood source. They also learned about blood typing and analyzing blood types from a crime scene to determine which suspect(s) might be involved in the crime.
Students Experience STREAM through Art and Math
Studio in Art is the Foundation level course, and Pre-Requisite for art electives; it is also the first course in the Computer Graphics Journey in the STREAM lineup at the High School. In Mrs. B. Sywalski’s Studio course students recently had the opportunity to use 21st Century skills from the Art and Design Thinking Process through an Interdisciplinary project that paired Visual art with Math.
Artists have long analyzed the basic geometry of things in our world to make the shape and form of complex objects understood, and more accurately depicted. The study of Geometry helps us to measure known shapes, volumes, and forms that aid us in creating a wide variety of objects including buildings. Artists Andrew Loomis and George Bridgman have both taught and published many books that teach the basics of drawing, most famously the human figure, through basic geometric forms as shown in the sketch provided, “Example 1”.
In this unit Sywalski’s students studied two of the Traditional Practices of Visual Art, Value and Form, known to her students as “The Fantastic Four”. The Essential Questions of, “How do artists make things look ‘real’, and, how do artists make something on a 2D surface look believable?” led the assignments. In the study of Form, geometry played the important role of main character and setting in the assignment: “Narrative Drawing”.
The first task was to study Value through a variety of exercises and explorations. After Value, students analyzed and experienced geometry through the study of Linear Perspective by learning how to create cubes, cones, pyramids, cylinders, and triangular prisms, as seen in “Sketch 1” by Ashley Williams. As a Stretch & Explore, students applied and combined the geometry to an object such as the simplified flashlight in Sketch 1. In this experience as artists, students discussed creating the illusion of form through height, width, and most importantly depth; as well as how those dimensions linked to the spatial relationships of X, Y, and Z coordinates. Without “Z” a cube, for example, is simply a square on the paper; “Z” makes us perceive the square as a cube on the 2D surface. Linear Perspective, developed during the Renaissance by Brunelleschi, helps the artist calculate or envision the angle of the edges and planes of X, Y, and Z as the object recedes in space, further aiding in the artists illusion of form and space.
Students were then assigned the problem: write a simple narrative with visual information such as the setting, and what the characters look like, that could become a work of art. The art must show or illustrate the story and make it look believable, or more real, in terms of looking more 3D. This required the students to apply their new skills in creating geometric forms in a new way, their own way, in order to solve the problem- show and tell their narrative.
Students were tasked with creating several different solutions to this problem in the form of sketches, see “Sketch 2” by August Barretto-Sanes, then evaluating which one is the most effective or will work best for them to create for their final piece. During the process of creating the final work, students worked with a partner on a Working Critique to evaluate the progress of the work and make any revisions that students felt were necessary.
Creating these works of art is a high-level challenge for foundation students; often referred to by Sywalski as “a healthy struggle”, and the final works depict students’ narratives in a simple, modern manner. Students not only created beautiful works; but engaged in a process that is not only very sophisticated, but also inclusive of 21st Century Skills (define problem, prototype, create, evaluate, revise, bring to completion) and Visual Arts Standards (Create, Reflect, Connect) oriented. After Value and Form, students will explore the Traditional Practices of Depth & Space, and color.
Although a couple of the final works are shown in this article, please join the Art Department in celebrating these and many other works of art from our district at the Annual District-Wide Art Show on May 29th at 4:30-7:00pm in the HS Gymnasium.